I got tagged by both Ruth and Colin so thought I'd better make an effort! Here's the Rules:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.
These are not necessarily weird facts about me and considering they’re all kind of linked around travel stuff, they’re not necessarily random facts either, but here goes…
1. When I was 16 I travelled alone to Glasgow to stay with cousins for the weekend. This would be no big deal to most 16 year olds today but for me at the time I really thought I was something and loved the freedom of doing my own thing. This is most likely where my love of independent travel came from.
2. The Glasgow trip also gave me a love for train-travel, especially in Scotland.
3. Whenever I listen to Marc Cohn’s ‘Ghost Train’ song on his debut album I always think of the train trip from Stranraer to Glasgow and watching the Galloway hills go past the window.
4. Another great train trip was to the Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Bavaria when I was at uni in Regensburg for 4 months as part of my undergraduate degree. The German rail service was running a special weekend ticket at the time so that 5 people could share a 25DM return ticket on regional trains. So five of us got together and our 7-hour round trip to the castle cost us less than £3 each!
5. The other part of my year abroad was spent in Amiens in northern France. Its claim to fame is a huge cathedral in the same style as Notre Dame but is twice the size.
6. During my year abroad I also managed to visit Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Colmar, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Pforzheim, Munich, Nuremburg, Pilsen, Prague, Marianske Lazne, Cesky Krumlov, and Salzburg.
7. I had one rather negative experience with the RER trains in Paris when heading to the airport with friends. I confidently stepped onto a train thinking it was the right one when the doors suddenly closed behind me leaving my two friends still on the platform and all I could hear was one of them in true Victor Meldrew fashion, “I don’t believe it!” I had gotten on to the wrong train but as all French people stare (I know this is a sweeping generalisation, but believe me it often felt like it!) I kind of acted as if nothing was wrong but got off at the next stop, then waited for the next train going back to where I’d started so I could get the right train to the airport. This was in the days before everyone had mobile phones so I’d no means of getting in touch with my friends. It took me a few hours before we finally all got caught up with each other at Charles de Gaulle and had a good giggle about it.
I'm now tagging Peter, Neil, Charlie, Erin, Dave, Cate, Emma.
